When the Herbalist Gardens… July 5th, 2025
It is now 2 weeks past Winter Solstice and I have worked out how to order my blogs!
I will also need to index them to make it easier for you to find what is in each post.
This is, of course, the time of year when all the bottling and freezing of fruits and vegetables, drying and preparing herbs for food and medicine, is worth it.
I make a wild winter weed and herb pesto – great to have with bread/crackers and cheese and to have on pasta. Two winter herbs that I include in the pesto and that I add to winter salads are the Wintercress (land cress pictured on the left), Barbarea verna, and the Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata (pictured on the right). These are two hassle free, invaluable plants to have in your garden no matter what size your garden is, they will readily self-sow, are easily removed if they decide to grow in an unwanted place.
It is also the time of year I spend a lot of time close to the ground and pour over numerous of books on fungi. I am more interested in what fungi are here on this land, what triggers the fruiting body (the mushroom), where each species grows, what time in Autumn/Winter and what Kinship connections each has.
Stay warm. These inversion layer days, that occur in this area in winter, do make for some time to internalize, prepare for Spring and are generally so quiet that I feel my ‘kinship’ connections with all that is in and is of this land, are close. Nga mihi.
isla burgess 